The Zebra

I have always loved the Starsky and Hutch Gran Torino.

When I was a kid, I loved the show, mainly because of the car. Well, being
a big fan of the 1970’s I decided to set out to find a Gran Torino.
After searching, I ended up finding a 1974 Gran Torino in Arizona and had
it shipped here to Florida. Originally, the car had a vinyl top, brown
copper
exterior, and brown copper interior. Luckily, the car was an Arizona car
its whole life, so the metal was in overall nice shape except for one spot
on the passenger quarter panel which looked like water had dripped from an
A/C unit on it for 10 years straight. Once I got the car, it immediately went
to Lopez paint and body to begin its transformation. The main thing I
wanted to accomplish was to get the vector stripe correct. Luckily,
Detective Brent who is
big into the Starsky cars makes a stencil, so we
could get it right. The car was painted Viper red like the car from the
movie, not Ford red like the TV show, mainly because the Viper Red is more
brilliant. Of course, the white stripe was Ford Wimbelton White. The
engine was an old and tired 351 Windsor so we pulled it and put a 405
horsepower 302 bored 40 over in. Vehicle Recreations did a total
ground-up on this car and let me tell you, every bit of it was painstakingly
done!

Unfortunately, the car’s motor never ran right and after deliberation,
we pulled the motor and replaced it with the 302 out of the Bullitt Mustang
(which then received a 390 big block). The interior has been redone in
black just
like the TV show and a correct 140 MPH, police interceptor speedo has been
added in place of the typical 120 speedo.

The car has the red light, wig wags, siren, and original period correct
Motorola police radio which is hooked up to an actual police scanner so
you can be aware of any crimes committed.

Trim parts for this car were very hard to come by. I mean, who really
restores a mid seventies Torino? Luckily I was able to locate everything
I needed with the help of a guy named David
Starsky. —That’s right, David Starsky!— Also, a company
out of Georgia called BlueOval helped me quite a bit! I also was looking
for that original exhaust sound from the seventies and ended up scoring
some NOS Thrush mufflers from 1975 to give it the extra added touch of
sound. I also ended up purchasing the original license plates from the TV
show which I put on the front of the car. After adding American Racing slot
mags I was ready to hit the streets. The Zebra 3 gets looks wherever it
goes.